Description
What are Living Lessons?
Living Lessons are not an online school. Our goal is and always has been to assist the parent/teacher in their own classroom. We also feel it is important that the parent/teacher remains involved in the lessons to stay true to the Waldorf methods. So Living Lessons are a classroom assistant for you and a way for you to become a better teacher by having another teacher lead, guide, and inspire you. Here are some ways in which you may use the Living Lessons:
1. You are homeschooling multiple ages and need a virtual teacher now and then so you can offer each of your students individual attention.
2. You are looking for a virtual classroom experience with a Waldorf teacher.
3. You need a break now and then from homeschooling full time.
4. You want to enhance your own skill set by watching other teachers present Waldorf lessons.
5. You want to join a community of other parents experiencing Living Lessons with opportunities for your kids to connect with other kids in the program.
6. You are running a business or working from home and need a virtual teacher to help you homeschool.
7. You recently moved or are experiencing health challenges that make it hard to homeschool full time.
8. You are new to homeschooling and need a boost of confidence to start off your year.
9. You are new to Waldorf education.
10. You feel overwhelmed with the prospect of homeschooling or you have been forced into homeschooling by the pandemic and are feeling lost.
This package includes the following Living Lesson videos…
Form Drawing Lessons with Waldorf Teacher Nicole
Form Drawing Lesson 1
Teacher – Nicole Martinez
Length – 31:09
Start this lesson with a braid drawing activity at the chalk board and expand your knowledge of drawing human hair. Teacher Nicole explains the process in detail while drawing Norse mythology character, Sif, and gives tips about highlighting and shading that can be applied to drawing all kinds of braids. After practicing on the chalkboard where it’s easier to correct little accidents, we’ll also be sure to transfer this information and drawing to our main lesson book. While we do this, we’ll hear the story of Thor and Sif. This lesson becomes more tangible with tracing the shape of a rope or whichever kind of cord you have available in your learning space.
- Chalk drawing activity
- Draw a braid
- Cursive writing
- Storytime: “Thor and Sif”
Member Feedback: “It’s great that there are a variety of ways to convey the concept to students. With drawing, writing in cursive, and tracing yarn, there is something for all learning types which is so very appreciated.”
Form Drawing Lesson 2
Teacher – Nicole Martinez
Length – 31:02
Become more familiar with the idea of line crossings. How can we use line crossings to portray more complicated ideas in our art? Start by drawing a circle – one of the most important and commonly used shapes in art and nature – and create an interesting circular pattern chalk drawing. This pattern will be used to practice tracing lines and figuring out how we can better understand drawings that use the illusion of multiple dimensions. Take this activity to the next level by turning this 2D drawing concept into a 3D clay craft. Lastly, we’ll do our main lesson book and take all that we’ve learned and apply it to our drawing.
- Chalk drawing
- Clay craft
- Line crossings in art
- Circle drawing methods
Member Feedback: “I love these lessons that plant seeds of ideas into our youth’s growing minds. When they do this lesson, they’ll be having fun drawing the shapes and learning the basics, but suddenly days later, you see them branch out all on their own and they’re able to use what they’ve learned in context. You get to watch the seed blossom in real time!”
Form Drawing Lesson 3
Teacher – Nicole Martinez
Length – 45:43
Start this lesson with a chalk drawing activity where we create a beautiful image of The Three Fates, an important group of sisters in mythology, who we will also hear a captivating story about at the end of our lesson. Practice giving these drawings a bit more movement and dimension. After we complete our drawing, we’ll get out our main lesson books and jump into drawing something more geometric. Apply all that we’ve learned from these past three lessons and compare it to your lesson 1 and 2 main lesson book pages. In what areas have you improved? What would you like to put more time into?
- Chalk drawing
- Art with movement
- Dimensions in art
- Morning verse
- Geometric forms
- Storytime: “The Three Fates”
Member Feedback: “The chalk drawing exercise in the start was a great way to practice the ideas in lesson one and two in the context of people drawing. Nice progression in these lessons, they truly do build upon one another.”
Form Drawing Lesson 4
Teacher – Nicole Martinez
Length – 23:36
Start with a chalk form drawing to warm up your creativity. Think about what beauty is to you, and color in your form drawing to express that beauty to whoever may have the joy of looking at it. Show them what beauty looks like through your eyes! Next, Teacher Nicole will share a poem about October and a song about Autumn. Feel free to also share written or spoken art about whichever season you’re experiencing in your part of the world. After, we’ll get ready to do our main chalk form drawing activity. The purpose of this activity is to really break down each step of what we’re drawing, and practice it. Repetition is important here. Once you feel comfortable, transfer this drawing into the main lesson book.
- Chalk drawing
- October poem
- Autumn song
- Practice the art of practicing
Member Feedback: “This lesson encourages you to slow down and focus on the details, which I find to be imperative at this point the lesson block. Instead of rushing forwards, it’s been nice to take a step back and solidify all that we learned before. This way you can build a solid foundation that will serve you in the future.”
Form Drawing Lesson 5
Teacher – Nicole Martinez
Length – 34:43
Teacher Nicole starts this lesson with a chalk form drawing of a star design created by the Mescalero Apache people. She introduces some more creative patterns here. Next, we’ll learn more about the Mescalero Apache people and we’ll hear a story time about the Mescalero Apache people, and their creation story. After this, practice drawing their star design and incorporate our line crossing technique, and when you are comfortable with that, transfer it into the main lesson book. Be proud of all that you’ve learned so far!
- Chalk form drawing
- Learn about the Apache people
- Mescalero Apache people’s creation story
- Learn to draw the Apache star design
Member Feedback: “Love the inclusion of Native American art. It opens up the opportunity to learn about all of the different tribes’ artworks and how different they all are.”
Form Drawing Lesson 6
Teacher – Nicole Martinez
Length – 48:29
It’s time to put everything together. Take three of the forms we’ve learned during this block and use them to create a chalk drawing of Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer. Zoom in and analyze the design on the hammer and practice with that isolated form drawing design. Use repetition to get confident with this and then once you are comfortable, transfer this project into the main lesson book. Finish off the lesson with a continuation of our previous story of Thor and Sif. This time we’ll get into how Thor’s hammer was made!
- Chalk drawing
- Thor’s hammer
- Combine form drawing techniques
- Form drawing practice
- Review previous form drawings
- Storytime: “Thor’s Hammer”
Member Feedback: “I liked the overall mythological theme of this lesson block. The three fates, Thor’s Hammer, the story of Sif and Thor. It worked very well.”
Lesson A: The Celtic Knot #1
Teacher – Nicole Martinez
Length – 11:44
“The Celtic Knot is a perfect representation of thinking, feeling, and willing.” Teacher Nicole shows us how to draw a Celtic Knot. Start by practicing with chalk and chalkboard. After becoming more comfortable and familiarizing the pattern into your muscle memory, transition to a sheet of paper and pencil. Nicole provides guidelines you may follow to ensure a successful drawing! Finish this activity up by shading in your Celtic Knot with any color(s) of your choosing.
- Form Drawing
- Basic Celtic Knot
- Chalk drawing
- Pencil drawing
Member Feedback: “The Celtic Knot was such a fun form drawing to learn to make I absolutely recommend it.”
Lesson B: The Celtic Knot #2
Teacher – Nicole Martinez
Length – 13:36
Now that we know how to draw the Celtic Knot, let’s try another level of difficulty. Learn to draw this more complex Celtic Knot with Teacher Nicole. Begin with chalk for practice and see how far you’re able to get with this pattern by free hand, while you follow Nicole. Notice where it feels more challenging and make sure to give those spots some extra practice. When you’ve completed your practice, use color blending techniques to finish up the chalk portion of this lesson. In the main lesson book, we’ll be drawing the same Celtic Knot, but this time in pencil. Remember to have fun and be creative.
- Form Drawing
- Complex Celtic Knot
- Chalk drawing
- Pencil drawing
Member Feedback: “It’s nice that there are two variations of this. The first Celtic Knot is great practice for getting into the second one that’s more difficult.”
Lesson C: The Celtic Knot #3
Teacher – Nicole Martinez
Length – 32:49
It’s time for the final level of Celtic Knot drawing. Take all that you’ve learned and practiced from the main lessons and Celtic Knot lessons #1 and #2 and apply it to this lesson. Teacher Nicole provides guidelines that you may follow to ensure a successful drawing and better understanding of the design. Like usual, it’s important to start by practicing on a chalkboard for easy corrections,
- Intricate form drawing
- Woven knot
- Chalk drawing
- Pencil drawing
- Celtic knot
Member Feedback: “This was a challenging one, but so rewarding as well”
Lesson D: Four Leaf Form Drawing
Teacher – Nicole Martinez
Length – 16:35
Let’s finish off the activity portion of this lesson with a fun and simple design, the Leaf Form. Grab some chalk and a chalkboard cause like always, we want to start with a free practice session while we learn and get familiarized with the material. Teacher Nicole provides detailed instructions for us to follow for our design drawing and our decorating. Once we’ve finished our chalk portion, we’ll transition to pencil and paper and copy our final version into the main lesson book. Lastly, step back and take a look at all of the form drawings you have learned and completed this block! Admire your work and be proud of how far you’ve come.
- Form drawing
- Chalk drawing
- Pencil drawing
- Leaf form
Member Feedback: “This was a nice way to complete the block. This particular form drawing looks like leaves, so you’re able to incorporate it into many nature drawings as well.”
